Aston Martin Racing‘s hopes at the 24 Hours of Le Mans were hit early on by identical problem that befell both of their AMR-One cars on the same lap of the race.
A failure of the water pump drive caused Darren Turner to lock-up and spin the 007 car. At the same moment, Adrian Fernandez suffered exactly the same problem behind the wheel of the 009.
Fernandez was unable to get back to the pits, forcing the 009 into retirement. Turner recovered the 007 to the garage, where the team have been working hard to replace the part in order to try and get the car back into the race.
“Obviously we are bitterly disappointed that 009 has retired so early,” said team principal George Howard-Chappell. “We found some cracks in an aluminium pulley, and elected to substitute the part with a steel replacement. This has caused a problem elsewhere in the driveline and we will now run 007 again with the aluminium part.”
